2
Lewis Hamilton is currently faster than his new teammate Valtteri Bottas. That is the view of Mercedes' team chairman and F1 legend Niki Lauda.
Finn Bottas was signed by Mercedes on a one-year contract for 2017, after world champion Nico Rosberg's shock decision to quit the sport.
"What I've seen so far is that Valtteri has closed to within two tenths of Lewis' qualifying performance," Lauda said at the Barcelona test.
"This is already very good," he told the German broadcaster RTL. "He lacks the experience that Lewis has so he can develop still further on the long runs.
"He has to work on everything, and he will," Lauda added. "But I am more than satisfied with his performance so far."
Bottas agrees that he is "close" to Hamilton: "We have worked on different programmes but sometimes I had the opportunity to compare the telemetry," said the Finn.
"So far it looks like we are very close, but it's only testing. However, based on what I saw, I have made progress."
Meanwhile, after Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel called each other's teams the "favourites" for 2017, Lauda has sided with his top Mercedes driver. "We are two tenths from Ferrari," said the Austrian.
Told that Vettel has called Mercedes the favourites, Lauda insisted: "No. It's Ferrari. They're doing a fantastic job."
And at present, it seems clear that Red Bull is clearly the third force: "We haven't shown yet that we can be on Ferrari's pace," admitted Daniel Ricciardo. "It looks like they're close to Mercedes' pace, or on it already."
But Bottas thinks it's too early to make clear statements about the pecking order: "Ferrari looks very strong," he said, "and Red Bull may surprise -- as well as other teams. It will be a close fight. At the moment, we cannot consider ourselves favourites."
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
134,234 comments on Sauber
2 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Valtteri Bottas
490,231 comments on Ferrari 279 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Ferrari
Replies (2)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
We'll see, mister Kennedy, we'll see.
James Raven
Posts: 2,419
I am positively surprised by Bottas speed. He'll be closer to Hamilton than I would have expected.